


Adore You

by opulent_flame



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: Canon Compliant, Crazy Tammy, Drama, F/M, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Jealousy, Loving Marriage, Romance, Worried Ben, non Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-07-25
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:13:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,287
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578098
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opulent_flame/pseuds/opulent_flame
Summary: One-Shots centered around your favorite Parks and Rec couple - Leslie/Ben
Relationships: Leslie Knope/Ben Wyatt
Comments: 9
Kudos: 35





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hi - I actually posted a lot of these a long time ago, but ended up deleting my account and these one shots during a bad time in my life. So, this might be your first time coming across these stories, or they might look familiar to you if you are an avid reader for this couple within the past year or so. Either way, I hope you enjoy. Please let me know what you think!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Parks and Rec. - I am just a fan of the show who wanted to write some fanfic!

Ben creaked open the door, careful not to wake Leslie. He was startled to come home to the house with all the lights off. He figured that Leslie would be up working on some project or that she would at least leave a light on for him. He had no idea what time it was, but he knew that it was well past midnight and he was returning from Jerry’s surprisingly interesting Christmas party. Although he had his reservations about attending, the evening proved to be kind of fun. However, Ben was still completely baffled by how attractive Gayle was compared to Jerry. No matter how hard he tried to imagine how their relationship happened, nothing seemed to add up. 

After the party, Andy, April, and Tom convinced him to go with them to get drinks. Ben normally would have declined, but he was really enjoying his evening. They all talked about the party and how they almost went to a dinner instead. Ben found himself drinking weird drinks that Tom kept ordering for them all. Everyone ended up being extremely drunk and they had to call Donna to come and pick them up. Luckily, Ben got a ride with Chris to the party and rode with Tom to the bar, so he wasn't leaving his car behind like the others. 

Ben made his way through the dark house, letting out curses after bumping into several objects along the way. Eventually, he entered their bedroom. He turned the light on so that it would give him enough to see but not enough to wake Leslie. As he looked at the bed, it became clear that it was untouched. The bed was still perfectly made from when he left it this morning. A small frown tugged as lips as he began to wonder where Leslie could be. 

“Leslie?” he called out, flipping the lights on so that they were at their brightest. He checked in the bathroom and then made his way back to the living room. “Leslie, are you in here?” 

No response. 

Ben pushed down the instant feeling of worry that was beginning to bubble up inside him and figured that Ron’s chair contest was probably just taking longer than expected. Still, Ben figured that he should call and just make sure everything was alright. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and quickly called Leslie. He waited as the phone rang, tapping his foot impatiently. Ben let out a loud curse as her voicemail began to play into his ear. 

“Hey, it’s me,” he said. “I just got back and saw that you weren’t here yet. I’m assuming your still at the event, but I wanted to just make sure that everything was okay. Please call me or send me a text or something so that I know everything it good. Okay, I love you. Bye.”

Ben let out a sigh and hung up. He waited a few minutes, hoping that she would reply, but as time ticked on, he found himself growing increasingly anxious. He scrolled down in his contacts and clicked on Ron. He waited for the familiar sound of ringing and felt a flood of relief fall over him as Ron picked up the phone. 

“Ben?” Ron asked gruffly. “It’s late. Why are you calling me?”

“Hey, yeah, sorry to bother you,” Ben said quickly. “Are you still with Leslie?” 

“Leslie hasn’t come home yet?” Ron asked, concern clearly in his voice. 

Ben felt a weight drop onto his chest. Although he was inebriated, he sobered up real quick. “No. I was hoping she was still with you.” 

“Tammy is a damn lunatic.” Ron muttered into the phone. Before Ben could ask what he meant by that, Ron began to elaborate. “My ex-wife came and tried to ruin things with Diane. Leslie said she was going to hold Tammy off while Diane and I left. Leslie waited for Tammy in my car and I have Leslie’s car.” 

Ben nodded, his brow furrowing. “So, where do you think they are?” 

“I would like to think that Leslie is still driving the car, but there is no telling how any of it could have gone down. Leslie is smart, but Tammy is the most manipulative and deceptive creature to ever walk this Earth,” Ron said.

“Are you telling me that Leslie is alone with this woman and no one knows their location?” Ben felt himself hiss out the words in a bit of frustration. His night had gone from a fun Christmas party to Leslie being seemingly missing. 

“Don’t worry,” Ron said. “Tammy two is a sex-crazed she-demon, but she isn’t evil. I doubt that she would do any serious harm to Leslie.” 

“Gee, that makes me feel so much better,” Ben retorted. Ron could tell that Ben was starting to panic, so he decided that he would try and help. He really didn’t want to, but he knew that he owed it to Leslie. She sacrificed herself so that he could leave and now it was his turn to return the favor. 

“Let’s meet up at the parking lot where I last saw them and see if we can find anything that will help us find them,” He suggested. 

Ben started walking to the door, his keys in his hands. “I was already thinking that. I’ll meet you there.” 

The two men hung up their phones. As Ben sped down the road, his mind was plagued with terrible thoughts. Leslie and Tammy could be anywhere in Pawnee right now. In fact, they could have left Pawnee for all anyone knew. Ben picked up his phone and called Leslie again, only to find her voicemail once again. He pressed down on the gas even more, the engine roaring in the empty street and sped into the parking lot. He turned off his car and slung the door open. He glanced around, hoping to find something. There were only two cars in the parking lot, but neither of them belonged to Ron. 

Ben kicked the tire of his car in frustration. As he looked up, he saw the familiar headlights of Leslie’s car. He waited for Ron to get out and was surprised to see that Diane was accompanying him. She offered Ben a small smile as she climbed out of the car. 

“I can’t say I’m surprised that my car isn’t here,” Ron commented. “But these are the cars of the janitors. Maybe we could go in and ask them if they saw anything.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ben nodded. “Good idea.” 

The three of them approached the building and Ron stepped forward to knock on the door. One of the janitors walked over, his face a mixture of curiosity and irritation. He quirked his eyebrow and slowly unlocked the door. 

“What do you guys want?” he asked. 

“Hello,” Ron started. “Did you perhaps see a psychotic brunette harpy and an extremely loud blonde woman who was most likely chattering incessantly about parks?” 

The janitor scratched his head. “Are you talking about those two weirdos who came in here? One was screaming out for a guy named Ron and the other one seemed smuggly confident that Ron wasn’t here.”

“Yes!” Ben replied. “That’s them!” 

“Oh,” he nodded slowly. “Well they came in and I thought maybe they were drunk. I told the brunette lady that they had to leave and she grabbed an axe. She then started screaming like a banshee and was running after the blonde lady.” 

_ “What?”  _ Ben seethed out. “You’re telling me that Tammy was chasing Leslie with an axe?”

“Tammy…” Ron narrowed his eyes, clearly thinking about his own memories with his ex-wife. 

“Should we call the police?” Diane looked baffled. “Did she actually hurt Leslie?” 

The janitor shrugged. “The blonde one ran faster than I thought possible in the heels she was wearing. She even dropped this,” he reached down into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. 

Ben took the phone and glanced over at Ron. “We are calling the police.” 

“I suppose that is our only option,” he agreed. He looked nervous, but it was nothing compared to the turmoil that was erupting inside of Ben’s mind. 

“How about we drive around town and see if we find them anywhere?” Diane offered. 

Ben and Ron agreed and they went back out to their cars. Ron gave Ben a pat on the back and granted him a small frown. 

“I’ll call the police and give them the information on my car,” he said. 

Ben sighed and climbed into his car. He started it and pulled out of the parking lot. He glanced at the clock and had to do a double take when he read that is was 4:18 in the morning. He shook his head and tried to think of areas to search. He decided to first try checking all the parks in Pawnee. Then he would try the library and maybe even the parks department. He would drive around this entire town until he found them or anything that would help him find him. The mere thought that Leslie was being chased by an axe infuriated him. It was reckless and extremely dangerous. Worse than that, he was irritated that he couldn’t do anything to fix it. 

He had been driving around town for nearly three hours when his phone started ringing. He scrambled it up and answered it quickly, hoping that it would be good news. Every place he went to proved to be a lost cause. 

“Hello?” Ben said. 

“Ben,” Ron said. “I just got a call from the police. They pulled over my car and they said that they have Tammy.” 

“What about Leslie?” 

“Well, they said it’s just Tammy,” Ron said. “Meet us at 8th Street.” 

Ben turned his car around and began making his way to 8th Street. He felt his frustration building and he couldn’t wait until he saw Tammy. He was going to rip that woman a new one and figure out where in the hell Leslie was. Ben drove down, making a sharp right onto the street and saw Leslie and Ron’s cars parking by the sidewalk. Ben whipped his car behind them and parked it. He opened up his door, ready to yell at Tammy when he saw her sitting on the sidewalk in handcuffs, a big pout on her lips. She looked up at Ben, whose eyes were dark with rage. 

“Ben!” A voice caused Ben to look over at the trunk of Ron’s car. 

His felt his mouth fall open as he saw the policeman helping Leslie out of the trunk of the car. “Leslie…” he walked over to her, reaching forward to help the policeman get her out of the trunk. Her hair was wild, blonde curls jutting out in a frizzled mess. Her eyes were large and she looked exhausted. The makeup she had been wearing earlier was smudged and she was missing one of her shoes. 

“Are you okay?” he asked, running his hands over her as he checked to see if she was hurt. 

“Yeah,” she breathed out and then looked over at Ron, who was talking to the police about Tammy. She looked back at Ben and a smile formed on her face. “You don’t look too good.” 

“I don’t look good?” Ben asked her incredulously. “Do you know how stressed I have been? I have been looking for you all morning. I had no idea where you were and some janitor told me about an axe and-” 

Leslie let out a laugh and then pressed herself against him. Her lips met his and he wrapped his arms around her instinctively. 

“I’m sorry that I scared you,” she said. “I want to say that I enjoyed being trapped inside a trunk of a car for the past few hours, since I have always secretly wanted to be kidnapped for some super top secret government reason, but that would be a complete lie. It was so cramped and my leg fell asleep and I couldn’t do anything about it!.” 

Ben smiled and gave her a kiss on the top of her head. “I was so worried about you.” 

“Can we go home? I really want to take a bath,” Leslie glanced down at her ruffled pantsuit. “And since you worked so hard to rescue me, maybe you can join me?” 

Ben smirked down at her and agreed. They would go home and forget that this awful event even happened. 

But not before Ben got to say a few choice words to Tammy. 


	2. Chapter 2

Leslie ran through the grass, her laughter filling the air. Ben couldn’t help but feel a smile grow on his face as they ran hand in hand through the park in his home-town. He had just thrown the key to the city into the lake. It was symbolic gesture to show that he had moved on, but the park ranger didn’t care. Before he could reprimand them, the two of them took off and they couldn’t help but let the happiness overtake them as they ran like gleeful children. 

“I can’t believe you did that!” Leslie squealed. “Did you see his face? Oh my gosh, Ben! That was unbelievable!” 

“I know,” he replied with disbelief. His own laughter escaped his lips as he looked over at his wife. 

The sunlight was beaming through the trees. The rays of sun were hitting her hair, making it shine radiantly. Blonde curls cascaded down, bouncing as she ran. Her rosy cheeks looked adorably flushed from the running. He looked down at the hand he was holding and couldn’t help but grin at the wedding ring that decorated her finger. Ben let his eyes take in the warmth that she was emitting and he immediately slowed them down to stop. 

“What’s wrong?” she asked. She looked back over her shoulder to see if the park ranger had actually bothered to chase them down. She turned back to Ben, a curious look on her face. 

“You’re beautiful,” he said. 

Leslie’s smile grew wider and she stepped towards him, pulling him into a hug. Ben’s arms wrapped around the small of her back and he closed his eyes as he inhaled her familiar scent. 

“I can’t believe how this trip has gone” she admitted. “I really thought the ceremony was going to be genuine. You’d think they would move on after all this time.” 

Ben shrugged, pulling away from her so that he could look at her. “I’m more surprised by the fact you stole the key to the city.” 

Leslie scrunched her nose. “Okay, yeah I took it without them knowing, but technically it wasn’t stealing because that key belonged to you!” 

He chuckled, shaking his head. “It belongs to the bottom of the lake now.” 

“Good riddance. You deserve much better than this town. If they can’t see how awesome you are, they must all be like super blind.” 

“It doesn’t matter now,” he said. 

Leslie stared at him a moment. He sounded like he was genuinely okay, but she unsure of how to handle this. Despite everything that happened, this was still his home. He grew up here. She tried to imagine herself in his shoes and she honestly couldn’t fathom it. It was just really unfair and it rattled her just by thinking of how rude they all were. 

She pursed her lips.“Is there anything else you want to do? We still have a few hours before we need to start driving back to Pawnee. You can show me around your hometown some more.” 

Ben thought about some of the memories from his childhood. He could take Leslie to the old ice cream shop that his parents use to take him and his siblings to when they were younger. There was this weird flavor that they invented that was entirely too sweet and he was sure that she would love it. He could take her to the abandoned barn-house where he use to hang out and write Star Trek fanfiction. They could hang out on the bales of hay and talk about how he spent his days. Or maybe he could even take her to the high school he attended. He could introduce her to the librarian that had been working there for fifty years and let him keep a book on his last day of senior year. He was positive that Leslie would love to go and see all of the places from his childhood that shaped him into the person that he was, but he was done focusing on the past. 

He had spent so much of his life being plagued by the memories of his past. Everywhere he went, ghosts followed him. He would always be the teenager that ran his hometown to the ground. And for the first time, Ben thought he would be okay with that. He was okay with who he was. Sure, he regretted his decisions, but if he hadn’t tried to achieve Ice Town and gone on this path of life, he might have never met Leslie. 

No, he would not focus on the past. He wanted to focus on his future. His wonderful future with Leslie Knope. It didn't matter that Partridge didn’t want him, because he would welcome Pawnee with open arms. Leslie was his wife and she was the most supportive person in his life. She supported him in finding a job that wasn’t just a job. She was passionate and she was so very kind. She helped him feel complete for the first time in his life. So, he was done dwelling in the past. 

“Let’s go back to Pawnee,” Ben leaned down and kissed his wife. 

He felt Leslie smile against his lips. 

“Are you sure?” she asked. 

“Yeah, I want to go home and thank my wife properly for standing by my side this weekend.” 

Leslie giggled and gave him another kiss before they began walking back to their car. 


	3. Chapter 3

Leslie Knope didn’t cry in public. 

It was something her mother taught her at a very young age. Life was unpredictable and people were unreliable, but that shouldn’t be able to bother a Knope woman. No, Knope women were strong and despite every obstacle that they faced, they would never allow themselves to break down in front of others. Of course, they were human after all, and they were entitled to being upset once alone, but even then her mother told her it was dangerous game to wallow in despair. 

Leslie was stubborn and strong in many aspects. She had been thrown many curveballs in her life and yet she was able to keep it together for the most part. She never let anything tear her down for long. She was one of those people who was able to bounce back and always looked for the positive in things. There was always something that could be done about a situation. She was never completely helpless. 

And yet there she was, sitting in a closet in Washington with tears building up in her eyes. 

Ben was at the top of his life. He had an amazing career where he could be surrounded by amazing people who were worthy of him. He was happy and that should make Leslie happy too. He was with people of great importance and they were tall and beautiful and better than her in every possible way. They were all successful and knew how to function in a government setting and yet she couldn’t even keep the people of Pawnee satisfied. She just wanted to do a simple proposal to help everyone and she couldn’t even do that. 

She was finally a councilwoman and Ben was soaring into greatness. She had achieved something so grand and yet it was nothing compared to what he was doing. She wanted to think that everything would be fine, but who was she kidding? Why would a sexy elf king like Ben want to stay with her when he could have anything he wanted in this new life? She was short and blonde and bossy and oh so clearly bad at being a councilwoman. 

_ Pull yourself together, Knope.  _

Leslie sniffled and wiped at her eyes furiously. She needed to stop having a pity party in the closet and go out there and fake it for Ben. She could be the strong woman her mother raised her to be. She could go out there and meet all of the influential people that she admired since she was a little girl and pretend like it wasn’t killing her inside to know that she would never amount to anything. She had reached her dream and realized how little of a dream it had been to begin with. She was just a big fish in a small pond. 

She felt far away from Ben in that moment. He was outside, probably trying to make small talk with people while worrying about where she had wandered off too. Or maybe he wasn’t even worried at all. He was probably frustrated with her for leaving abruptly after introducing her to new people. Leslie was terrified at the thought of them drifting apart. It had only been a few months and yet it felt like she had spent a lifetime without Ben being in Pawnee. 

_ No, stop. You are just overthinking everything like usual.  _

Leslie blinked and tried to fight back the tears that started pouring from her eyes. She stood up, ready to flee from the building all together, when she turned and saw Ben standing in the doorway. 

“Leslie?” he asked, his brow creased with worry. The second he saw her face, he reached out towards her. “Baby, what’s wrong?” 

She froze. She looked up at him like a deer in headlights. She didn’t want to disappoint him. She quickly wiped her eyes again and cleared her throat. 

“I’m not feeling that great,” she said. It came out awkward and it felt so forced that she knew he wouldn’t buy it. She was always a terrible liar. 

Ben frowned. “We should go. We can go back to the hotel and-” 

“You should stay,” she cut him off. “I think I’m going to go back to Pawnee.” 

“Oh,” he said. His brown eyes were sad and Leslie tried to look away. She wanted to bolt out the door, but she knew that she owed Ben some sort of explanation. 

“I’m so proud of you,” she smiled, feeling tears build up. “But, I just can’t be here. I just- I’m sorry.”

“You just got here. Les, what is going on?” 

She felt her heart wrench as she looked at his hurt face. She wanted to explain everything to him, but she was weak. How could she say what she couldn’t even understand? She was afraid. So desperately afraid that Ben would see all these beautiful brunettes who were clearly his type and just think of Leslie as an old fling. A time when he was just getting started and he helped that goofy blonde lady get a spot on the council of a small town.

Leslie stepped forward, making a move to leave the closet. As she tried to slide past Ben, he grabbed her wrist and tried to make her stop. His eyes were pleading down at her with desperation. She looked up at him and pulled her wrist away, scurrying out of the closet.

She practically ran out of the building, refusing to look back. 


	4. Chapter 4

Leslie sat in the hospital waiting room. She crossed her legs and glanced over at the other people that sat scattered around. There was an older man with what appeared to be his son, a woman with her two children, and another man who was there alone. She wondered why they were all here. She frowned and hoped that no one was there for anything serious. Hospitals could be scary places and she didn’t have overly fond memories of them from her own personal past. 

She glanced up at the clock and wondered how long she had been sitting there. She brought Chris in as quickly as she could after he stepped in the bear trap at Animal Control. If Chris doubted their incompetence before their visit, he surely knew how foolish the employees were. They were only there for a few minutes when Leslie found herself staring in shock at Chris’ pained expression. Due to this mishap, her schedule for the day was totally thrown off. 

Leslie looked at the magazines on the counter and sighed. None of them looked even remotely interesting. How could they have a magazine about ‘organic greens’, but have nothing about female historians? Realizing that she would be sitting there for an unknown amount of time without much to do, she figured she should call Ben and let him know how her day was going. She pulled out her phone and pulled up his contact. She smiled as she saw his name, ‘Benji’, with a little heart eye emoji next to it. She pressed call and waited as the phone rang. 

“Hello?” he answered.

“Hey, babe,” Leslie smiled at his voice. 

“What’s up?” 

“Well, I’m pretty bored. I’ve been sitting here forever and I just figured I would call and talk to you while I wait. Can you believe that this place has boring magazines?” she sounded exasperated. 

“I mean, I can’t imagine Animal Control having stellar magazines,” he admitted to her. 

Leslie’s eyes widened as she realized that they hadn’t told anyone about what happened. 

“Ben,” she started, “I’m about to tell you something and you can’t freak out.” 

“What?” he asked rather casually. He clearly hadn’t picked up that anything was wrong. He probably figured Leslie was being dramatic about something and was going to inform him that she and Chris were going to get calzones for lunch without him. Which, now that she thought about it, was actually a really big deal and Ben would not be happy, no sirree. 

“I’m at the hospital right now and-” 

**“** _ What?!”  _ Ben’s casual tone turned to overly panicked in a split second. She could imagine the creases forming from stress on his face. 

“Hey, I said you weren’t allowed to freak out.” 

“Leslie, what happened?!” 

“Okay, everything is fine,” Leslie assured him. “Chris and I were at Animal Control and he stepped on a bear trap, so I brought him to the emergency room to make sure he didn’t do anything serious.” 

“Please, tell me you are joking,” he pleaded. 

“It was kind of interesting the way it happened. Honestly, I was in the same area and I didn’t see it either. I guess we should have been watching more closely.” Leslie thought back to the event that had happened only about an hour ago. It was so weird that neither of them noticed. How many other things were there in that building that were a hazard zone? “But hey, we were talking to those bozos and you know how things can get. Chris and I were went in on a mission and we didn’t exactly fail, by the way. This is just a minor setback is all.” 

She heard Ben sigh on the other end of the phone. “Les, we need to do something about that place...You’re wearing high heels right?” 

“Yeah,” she said, cocking her eyebrow. She always wore heels to work. She was a short woman and she needed to appear taller than children she might have to talk to. Ben knew that she always wore heels. “Why does that matter?” 

“That could’ve seriously hurt you. Bear traps are dangerous and not to mention, incredibly painful. Chris is lucky that he doesn’t have to go into surgery. I mean, my God, Leslie, that thing would have snapped into your foot and bam! There would have been so much blood and how on Earth would you be able to walk? Chris probably won’t be able to walk and he was wearing dress shoes. Right? He _ was _ wearing dress shoes? Oh, he could be having surgery on his foot. Leslie, what if they have to amputate his foot? How will he go on his runs? You can’t run with only one foot!” 

“Ben,” Leslie said. “Calm down. For starters, I’m sure Chris could get something in place of his foot and he could still run. In fact, I’m pretty sure that would be awesome. Imagine him running with one of those cool bionic body parts. Oh my God, that would be so cool!” She found herself getting excited at the thought. However, she knew that Ben wouldn’t think it was cool and it might even make him think about his fear of robots taking over the world, so she needed to reassure him. “But that isn’t the case. I’m fine. Chris is...probably fine. We are getting everything sorted out and there is no need to stress.”

She heard Ben take in a big breath and knew that he was about to spew out another paranoid rant about what could've happened but obviously didn’t happen. Why did her lovable goofball have to worry so much? Luckily, just before he could start, a nurse rolled Chris into her sight. 

“Babe!” Leslie said excitedly. “Chris is here and he is in a wheelchair. I gotta go, I love you!” 

She hung up before he could protest and jumped up to go over to Chris. Despite being in pain, the man had a giant smile on his face. 

“This hospital is  _ literally _ so nice,” he told her earnestly. “They gave me this wheelchair so that I don’t have to put pressure on my foot.” 

Leslie smiled at him. “I’m glad. You ready to go and finish our job?” 

Chris nodded at her as she began wheeling him out of the hospital once the nurse told her that everything would be okay. As they approached the car, Leslie glanced down at his foot. She saw that it was indeed still his actual foot, human and all, and quickly pulled out her phone to inform Ben that Chris was not slowly turning into a cyborg. 

Her smile only grew wider as she saw at least ten messages from him about his insane conspiracy theory. 

God, she loved that stress-ball of a man. 


	5. Chapter 5

Unfortunately, Ben and April failed in going home for their surprise visit that weekend. Ben ran out of gas after they had only made it forty feet in the parking garage. It was completely frustrating and he was trying to keep on a happy face for his video chat with Leslie they planned earlier that day. She had been showing her his new office when Councilman Jamm was unexpectedly using her bathroom. Shortly after that, Leslie had to go because she was trying to get a bill passed to keep the pool open for some children to get more practice hours in. 

After he changed out of his work clothes, he threw a frozen pizza in the oven. He was absolutely starving at this point. Then, he flopped down on the couch and opened his laptop up. He wasn’t sure when Leslie wanted to talk, so he decided that he would check the reviews on his latest Star Trek fanfiction. As he scrolled through some of the reviews, an icon popped up as Leslie was calling him. Ben answered her video chat request and smiled as her face appeared on the camera. 

His face fell slightly as he saw her mangled hair. Half of it was curly and half of it was straight. All of it also happened to be soaking wet. 

“Good lord,” he said. “What happened to your hair?” 

“Well hello to you, too,” she laughed. Her eyes crinkled in the corners and Ben felt his chest tighten. He missed her so much. “How did your day go?” 

“Oh, it was just great,” he replied sarcastically. “April and I were going to drive to Pawnee to surprise you and Andy, but we never even made it out of the parking garage.”

Leslie’s eyes widened with excitement. A huge grin stretched across her face. “Ben, that’s so sweet. I would’ve loved seeing you.” 

“Me too,” he sighed. “I’m sorry that it didn’t work out, but I think that we are going to try and fly home next weekend.” 

“Really?!” she squealed at him, wiggling in her seat. 

“Really. And maybe you can show me your new office in person?” he remembered how excited she was earlier and he expected her to seem even more excited at the prospect of showing him her new office. Instead, she faltered slightly, There was the smallest change in her features, and then she quickly regained her composure. It was that slight change that only he noticed. She could fool everyone else with a smile and a positive attitude. He could see through it all. 

“Actually, I have a different office now,” she gave him that smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “This one is really nice. Better than the other one, really. I can look out the window and wave at Tom now!” 

“Oh,” he said. “Um, why’d you get a different office?” 

“You know how crazy things can be around here,” she laughed nervously. “One minute you’re getting a perm, and then you’re eating a salad with extra dressing and extra anchovies, and Councilman Milton tries to kiss you and he falls on the ground and then accuses you of trying to kiss him! He wanted to use tongue, Ben!” 

Ben blinked, unsure of whether to be angry at the old man for advancing on his woman, or to simply laugh at how insane it all sounded. 

“Why were you talking to Councilman Milton?” 

“Because I was trying to convince him to swing the vote in favor of keeping the pool open longer.” she shook her head. “Jamm backed out because of the whole incident this morning with him using my bathroom.” 

Ben cringed as he thought about that. Before he could ask what happened next, Leslie started talking again.

“Jamm told me that he would do what I wanted if I gave him my office. So then Tom told me to give into what Jamm wanted but I didn’t know what else to do and all those children were depending on me.And next thing you know I had to give away my office and I have to get a freaking invisalign from him now! He insulted my brushing technique, Ben! I have great brushing technique!” 

“Jamm is an asshole,” Ben found himself saying. He noticed that his fists were clenched slightly. He wasn’t easily prone to wanting to commit acts of violence, but Jamm often pushed his buttons. He didn't like the way that he was manipulating Leslie to get what he wanted. She deserved that office. She was the person who was trying to better the community, not any of them. If he had been there, things would have gone differently. 

_ But you weren’t there,  _ he reminded himself. 

He shook his head in disgust and looked at Leslie. He knew that she was bummed out about what happened, but she was putting on a brave face, which meant in the end, she was usually okay with the way things went down. She was the kind of selfless person that was okay sacrificing things so that others could thrive. It was one of the many things he had first admired about her. 

Leslie smiled at him. It was soft and Ben felt himself relaxing as he gazed into her eyes. 

“He was about to tell the kids about the deal we made,” she started laughing, causing Ben to feel extremely confused. “And then Tom ran at him like a football player and shoved him into the pool! We were all so surprised. I just decided to jump in after him like it was all planned and Tom followed. Driving home soaking wet wasn’t really fun, though.” 

“Well, at least Tom was there to help you,” he said. The minute it left his mouth, he realized how pathetic it sounded. He was like a petulant child complaining about his own problems, that he had caused himself. 

Leslie gave him a look. “Don’t do that. You’re wonderful and amazing and I love you.” 

“I love you, too,” he said softly. 

“So, did you and April just sit in the car the entire time?” she wondered, grinning again. 

“Um, yeah. We ended up listening to CD’s. I think we actually bonded some.” 

“That’s great, babe,” she nodded enthusiastically, thinking about how weird it must of been and wishing she could’ve been part of it. “I really miss you.” 

“You can’t miss me that much. You were trying to french with Councilman Milton,” he teased. 

Leslie let out a loud laugh. “I don’t even want to think about it. I can’t believe I even considered it.” 

Ben laughed, too. He listened as she continued to describe her day, specifically how the perm had been a terrible idea. But he couldn’t help but keep thinking how much he wanted to see her. He needed her. He wanted to be there with her and experience all that he could and he was missing out on it to run some campaign that didn’t really matter to him. He could be with Leslie right now, curled up on the couch watching a movie, or making love after a long day. He wanted so many of the small things, like to feel her hand in his, the smell of her hair after she showered. 

He just wanted her. 

Ben let out a sigh. 

This weekend couldn’t come soon enough. 


End file.
